CLOSING october 2 / Occupying the SILENCE expo Katherine-Josée Gervais
Occupying the silence is perharps talking for nothing or then talking about what is not being said. The idea is to look for small hidden stories, to present guarded secrets to alleviate the unease associated with silence, to cry out loud forgotten whispers.
Galerie Point Rouge is proud to present Katherine-Josée Gervais’ first solo exhibit. The selected works explore an everyday poetry that finds its source in the object itself and the memory associated with it. A vacant lot, an abbandoned home, the imprints of a reverie on a cushion, birdsongs that fade into the tumult of life : differents ways of shedding a new light on memories of a bygone era. The notion of stigmata is also brought forth through images of remnants of the material world, non-places and leftover to create strangely familiar scenographies where the enchantment of life intersects tragic destinies.
Presenting a diversified artistic practice that ranges from painting to installation, the exhibited works address the confrontation between nature and culture, the limits that separate true identity from appearance. They open a true space of reflexion on the themes of disapearance, the impression of paradise lost, the fragility of existence and the traces that are left in the passage of time. Time that passes, but also time that can stop, these are the fulcrums of the exhibit and they softly lead the spectator into a poetic universe parallel to ours, actively inviting him or her to embark for a moment on this quest for meaning.
Katherine-Josée Gervais comes from a Lower Laurentians working-class town. She has held a number of jobs: spraypaint artist in Europe, South America and in the United States, painter-decorator in upscale residences, painter on movie and theater sets and painter and plasterer specialized in the restoration of built heritage. She has participated in many collective exhibits in Paris and Montreal and is now pursuing her studies at UQAM in Arts Visuels et Médiatiques.
